From Publishers Weekly
The title might be a bit misleading: is it really useful to know that the ant is the only animal that can survive being cooked in a microwave? And if it's not exactly riveting to learn that Post-its were invented by a guy who was frustrated that his page markers kept falling out of his hymn book, that Leonardo da Vinci was the first person known to have designed a kind of calculator (if you discount the abacus) and that rubber erasers are no longer made of real rubber, it is rather addictive to glean such morsels. Delving into the circumstances that brought about objects from the "inside world" (kitchen, bathroom, etc.) and "outside world"(public spaces and "leisure"), Levy (A Natural History of the Unnatural World) champions the underdog-things as mundane as rulers, umbrellas and even Teflon, he tells us, have a story, too. The photography here is mostly in unabashed product-shot mold, and on the whole the book, with frosty color-faded backgrounds and extreme closeups throughout, looks a bit like a sales catalogue. Yet commerce has always driven invention, and it's heartening to know the human side of products that have taken on a mundane ubiquity.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Booklist
Some ordinary items possess more interest than others--say, the invention of the refrigerator, which traces its origins back to the Chinese habit of cutting and using blocks of ice to preserve foods in 1,000 B.C.E. Others have beginnings that many of us are already familiar with--such as Post-It notes born in the fertile minds of 3M scientists. And still others count in the "who cares?" category, varying from Tupperware to the invention of fireworks. Nonetheless, give Levy (author of A Natural History of the Unnatural World, 2000) some credit, since his more than 100 picks for everyday things demonstrate considerable research expanded in good prose. Geared to Trivial Pursuit-ers--and other collectors of zany intelligentsia flotsam. Further reading and useful Web sites appended. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
